Oil on canvas, 98.5cm by 116cm. Signed l.l.: CAROLUS MARUTTVS.
This painting, and its pair PIC408, were purchased by John, 5th Earl of Exeter (1648-1700), most probably during his second Grand Tour in 1683-4, when his steward recorded a payment of 600 crowns to Maratta.
They appear together in the 1688 Burghley Inventory: ‘In the Best Bedd Chamber: 2 pictures over ye Doores a Magdalen praying, & our Saviour and ye Samaritan wo: by Carlo Marattus.’
Carlo Maratta was one of the leading artists in Rome in the 1680s and was a painter much favoured by John, 5th Earl of Exeter (1648-1700).
The earl purchased several other works from Maratta and also commissioned his portrait, though this is no longer at Burghley and remains unidentified.
